1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an apparatus and method for reproducing replacement data recorded on a disc.
2. Background of the Related Art
Recently, rewritable discs have been developed, for example, DVD-RAM, which can store a large quantity of high-quality video and audio data. Currently, such discs are widely commercially available.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a related art optical disc recorder system adapted to record data on an above-mentioned DVD-RAM. As shown in FIG. 1, the related art optical disc recorder system 100 includes an optical pickup 11, a video disc recorder (VDR) unit 12, and an encoder 13. As shown in FIG. 2, the DVD-RAM 10 has a lead-in area (LIA), a data area, and a lead-out area (LOA).
Also, an inner spare area (ISA) and an outer spare area (OSA) may be assigned to leading and trailing ends of the data area. In some kinds of DVD-RAMs, spare areas may also be assigned to respective trailing ends of tracks in the data area.
In the optical disc recorder system 100 having the above-mentioned configuration, the VDR unit 12 encodes data, externally inputted thereto, into a signal suitable to be recorded, modulates the signal, and records the modulated signal on the DVD-RAM 10 in the unit of ECC blocks. When the VDR unit 12 detects a defect area in the data area of the DVD-RAM 10 during the recording operation, as shown in FIG. 2, it records the ECC-based data, which would have been recorded in the defect area, in a spare area of the DVD-RAM 10, for example, the ISA, in the form of replacement data.
FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a related art optical disc player system 200. As shown in FIG. 3, the optical disc player system 200 includes an optical pickup 21, a video disc player (VDP) unit 22, and a D/A converter 23. When the VDP unit 22 detects a defect area during an operation of reproducing data recorded in the data area of the DVD-RAM 10, it performs sequential operations S10 to S15, as shown in FIG. 4, for searching for the replacement data recorded in a spare area of the DVD-RAM 10, and reproduces the searched data in place of the defect area, as shown in FIG. 4.
Accordingly, when there is a defect area in the data area of the DVD-RAM, it is possible to prevent erroneous data recording and reproducing operations by recording data, corresponding to data recorded on the defect area or to be recorded in the defect area, on a spare area of the DVD-RAM as replacement data, and reproducing the replacement data recorded on the spare area.
However, when the spare areas of the DVD-RAM are searched, as described above, in response to detection of a defect area during reproduction of data recorded in the data area of the DVD-RAM, the data reading operation for the reproduction of the data is delayed for a certain time. For this reason, it is impossible to continuously output reproduced pictures.